UNCERTAINTY: Noel O'Sullivan, pictured with Pearse O'Reilly of Irish TV at the London GAA headquarters in Ruislip, says he has no idea when he will make it home for a visit to Killarney.

EXCLUSIVE

By Sean Moriarty

Killarney people living in London say that they do not know when they will be able to get home to see family again - due to the new UK COVID restrictions.

The British Government announced a range of new and tighter restrictions this week in an effort to curb growing COVID-19 cases in the country.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson warned that if Tuesday’s new restrictions were not successful the country could he heading for a second full lockdown.

Restrictions imposed on businesses and people to stop the spread of COVID-19 could be in place for six months without major progress in areas such as vaccine and treatment development, he said.

The news was a bitter blow to many Kerry people living in the UK capital.

Noel O’Sullivan, who is originally from Ballaugh just outside town, has been living and working in London for the last 48 years but, thanks to Ryanair and Kerry Airport, he was able to get home a few times a year.

His last visit was Christmas - and this has been the longest period he has not been back home in nearly 50 years.

“It is hard to imagine that we were reading about this virus in China in January and how it has completely changed the way we live,” he told the Killarney Advertiser.

A life-long GAA fan, he has been involved with St Kiernan’s Club in Hendon, north London for years.

The London County Championship only got underway two weeks ago and already new restrictions could prevent the planned ban on spectators being lifted early next month.

“It is very hard on the elderly who may not be savvy with mobile phones and the Internet,” he added. “Going out to the games was their only way of meeting people and getting the news from home.”

Mr O’Sullivan is well-known in Irish community organisations in London. He is a former London GAA County Board chairman, a long-serving committee member of the London Rose of Tralee Centre, the Kerry Association London, and The Killarney Reunion.

His work for all of these organisations, as well as family occasions, meant he was a frequent visitor over the years.

“I had planned to come for a month in August and that fell through,” he said. “As a family we had booked a week in October but that is cancelled now. When is it all going to end.”